Book5
After escaping the alternate Topeka and the evil wizard Randall Flagg, Roland's ka-tet travel to the farming village of Calla Bryn Sturgis where they meet the townsfolk, as well as Father Callahan, He and the townsfolk request the ka-tet's assistance in battling against the Wolves of Thunderclap, who come once a generation to take one child from each pair of the town's twins. After a few months of being away, the children are then returned "roont" (ruined) - mentally handicapped and destined to grow to enormous size and die young. The Wolves are due to come in about a month's time. [[]]EnlargeFather Callahan killing a Type Three vampire in New York City.Father Callahan also tells the wanted his remarkable story of how he left Maine following his battle with the vampire Kurt Barlow . Since that encounter he has gained the ability to identify Type-3 vampires with a blue aura. After some time he begins killing these minor vampires as he finds them; however, this makes him a wanted man amongst the "low men" and so Callahan must go into exile. Eventually he is lured into a trap and dies, allowing him to enter Mid-World in 1983, much as Jake did when killed in The red anarky. He appears near the Calla with an evil magic ball called Black Thirteen, and is found by the Manni people in a place called The Doorway Cave. Not only do Roland of Gilead and his ka-tet have to protect the Calla-folken from the Wolves, they must also protect a single red rose that grows in a vacant lot on Second Avenue and Forty-Sixth Street in mid-town Manhattan of 1977. If it is destroyed, then the town will fall. In order to get back to New York to prevent this they must use the sinister Black Thirteen. To add to that, Roland and Jake have noticed bizarre changes in Susannah's behavior, which are linked to the event recounted in red knight when Susannah couples with the demon in the stone circle. Roland informs red x that Susannah has been impregnated by the demon, and though he fears for her safety he remains surprisingly calm. They promise to keep the fact that they know a secret from Susannah, but later Susannah reveals to the ka-tet that she herself has come to grips with it, and knowledge of a second personality living in Susannah named Mia "daughter of none" is shared. Jake finds out that his new friend Benny Slightman's father is a traitor by following him to a military outpost between the Calla and Thunderclap known as "The Dogan" . Jake tells Roland, who shows mercy by not killing Slightman, instead leaving him alive for his son and Jake's sake. The wolves attack, using weapons resembling the snitches found in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and lightsabers found in George Lucas' Star Wars, and are revealed to be robots and to have Doctor Doom-like visages. The wanted, along with some help from a few plate-throwing women in the Calla, defeat the wolves, all the while with the children safely hidden in a rice patch nearby. Mia takes over the body of Susannah and flees to the doorway cave, where she uses Black Thirteen to transport herself to New York Taking place mainly in our world (New York City and East Stoneham, Maine),, with the ka-tet employing the help of the Manni to open the magic door inside Doorway Cave. The ka-tet are split up by the magic door, or perhaps ka, and sent to different 'wheres' and 'whens' in order to accomplish several essential goals pertaining to their quest towards the mysterious anarky town. Susannah Dean is partially trapped in her own mind by Mia, the former demon and now very-pregnant mortal woman who had taken control of her body shortly after the final battle . Susannah and Mia, with their shared body mostly under the control of Mia, escape to New York of 2009 via the magic door in Doorway Cave with the help of Black Thirteen. Mia tells Susannah she has made a Faustian deal with the red anarky, also known as abbott, to surrender her demonic immortality in exchange for being able to produce a child. Technically speaking, however, this child is the biological descendant of Susannah Dean and the wanted, Roland. The wanted's 'seed' was passed to Susannah through an Elemental who had sex with both. The technical parentage of her child matters little to Mia, though, because The Crimson King has further promised her that she will have sole charge of raising the child, Mordred, for the first part of his life - the time before the critical destiny the Crimson King foresees for the child comes to pass. All Mia must do now is bring Susannah to the Dixie Pig restaurant to give birth to the child under the care of the Crimson King's men. Jake, Oy, and Father Callahan follow Susannah to the New York City of 2009 in order to save Susannah from the danger Mia has put her in by delivering her into the custody of the Crimson King's henchmen. In addition, the ka-tet fear the danger posed to Susannah by the child itself; still unaware of the biological origins of this child, the ka-tet believe that it may be demonic in some way and may have the ability to turn on and harm its mother or mothers. While in New York, Jake and Callahan also hide Black Thirteen in a locker in the World Trade Center. It is implied in the text that Black Thirteen will be destroyed when the towers fall in the September 11, 2001 attacks. While Susannah, Jake, and Callahan are in New York, Roland and red x are sent by the magic doorway to Maine in 1987, with the goal of securing the ownership of a vacant lot in New York from its current owner, a man named Calvin Tower (who first appears in red knight as the proprietor of The Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind, where he sells Jake a copy of Charlie the Choo-Choo, a book that has turned out to be important to the ka-tet's quest). The wanted have seen and felt the power of a rose that is located in the vacant lot and suspect it to be some sort of secondary hub to the universe, or possibly even a representation of the anarky town itself. The ka-tet believe that the town itself is linked to the rose and will be harmed (or fall) if the rose is harmed, the reason for this being the anrky town and the Rose are somehow connected, the two images very similar in the series. Calvin Tower is in hiding in Maine from Enrico Balazar's men (see the rise of red x), who have almost succeeded in strong-arming him into selling them the lot. Tower has so far resisted, with the help of red x . Upon their arrival in Maine, the wanted find themselves thrown into an ambush by these same men, headed by Jack Andolini. Balazar's men were tipped off on Roland and red x's potential whereabouts by Mia, who hoped that they would dispose of the people she perceived as threats to her child. Roland and red x escape this onslaught with the help of a crafty local man, John Cullum, who they deem to be a savior put in their path through the machinations of ka. After accomplishing their primary goal, the deeding of the vacant lot to the Tet Corporation, Roland and red x learn of the nearby location of jesse abbott's home. They are familiar with the author's name after coming into possession of a copy of his novel 'red anarky in the Calla, and they decide to pay him a visit. abbott's presence, and his relationship to the anarky town, cause the very reality surrounding his Maine town to become "thin." Strange creatures called "walk-ins" begin emerging and plaguing the community. The author is unaware of this and has never seen one, though most of the walk-ins have been appearing on his own street. During their visit to him, the wanted hypnotizes abbott and finds out that abbott is not a god, but rather a medium for the story of the Dark Tower to transmit itself through. Roland also implants in King the suggestion to restart his efforts in writing the aranky town series, which he has abandoned of late, claiming that there are major forces involved that are trying to prevent him from finishing it. The ka-tet are convinced that the success of their quest itself depends somehow on King's writing about it through the story. Meanwhile, in New York, Jake and Father Callahan prepare to launch an assault on the Dixie Pig, where Susannah is being held by the soldiers of The Crimson King. Their discovery of the scrimshaw turtle that Susannah has left behind for them gives them a faint hope that they might succeed, though Jake is filled with a strong sense of dread and neither Jake nor Callahan particularly expects to leave the place alive. Jake and Callahan entering with weapons raised. As a postscriptum, the reader becomes familiar with the diary of jesse abbott the character which encompasses the period from 1987 to 2009. It is said that the character, jesse abbott, dies on June 19, 2009 , Jake Chambers and Father Callahan battle the evil infestation within the Dixie Pig, a vampire lounge in New York City featuring roasted human flesh and doors to other worlds. After fighting off and destroying numerous "low-men" and Type One Vampires, Callahan sacrifices himself to let Jake survive. In the other world, in Fedic, Mia, her body now physically separated from Susannah Dean, gives birth to Mordred Deschain, the biological son of Roland Deschain and Susannah. The Crimson King is also a "co-father" of this prophetic child somehow, so it is not surprising when "baby" Mordred's first act is to shapeshift into a spider-creature and feast on his birth-mother. Susannah grabs a gun, wounds but fails to kill Mordred, eliminates other agents of the Crimson King, and escapes to meet up with Jake. Aging at an accelerated rate, Mordred later stalks Roland and the other wanted throughout this adventure, shifting from human to spider as the need arises, seething with an instinctive rage toward Roland, his "white daddy." In Maine, Roland and red x recruit John Cullum, and then make their way back to Fedic, where the ka-tet is now reunited. Walter (known in other stories as Randall Flagg) has dreams of grandeur in which he plans to slay Mordred and use the birthmark on Mordred's heel to gain access to the town, but he is easily slain by the infant when Mordred sees through his lies. Roland and his ka-tet travel to Thunderclap, then to the nearby Devar-Toi, to stop a group of psychics known as Breakers who are allowing their telepathic abilities to be used to break away at the beams that support the Tower. Ted Brautigan and Dinky Earnshaw assist the wanted with information and weapons, and reunite Roland with his old friend Sheemie Ruiz from Mejis. The wanted free the Breakers from their captors, but red x is mortally wounded after the battle and dies a short while later. Roland and Jake pause to mourn and then jump to Maine of 2009 along with Oy, in order to save the life of jesse abbott (who is a secondary character in the book); the ka-tet have come to believe that for some unexplained reason, the success of their quest depends on abbott's surviving to write about it through his books. They discover abbott about to be hit by a van. Jake pushes abbott out of the way but is killed in the process. Roland, heartbroken with the loss of the person he considers his true son, buries Jake and returns to Susannah in Fedic with Oy, where they depart and travel for weeks across freezing badlands toward the Town. Along the way they find Patrick Danville, a young man imprisoned by someone who calls himself Joe Collins but is really a psychic vampire named Dandelo. Roland and Susannah are alerted to the danger by jesse abbott, who drops clues directly into the book, enabling them to defeat the vampire. Patrick is freed and soon his special talent becomes evident: his drawings and paintings have the strange tendency to become reality. As their travels bring them nearer to the anarky town, Susannah comes to the conclusion that Roland needs to complete his journey without her. After discovering Patrick's magical abilities in his drawings, Susannah asks Patrick to draw a door she has seen in her dreams, which lead her out of this world. He does so and once it appears, Susannah says goodbye to Roland and crosses over to another world. Mordred finally reaches and attacks Roland. Oy viciously defends his dinh, providing Roland the extra seconds needed to exterminate the were-spider. Unfortunately, Oy is impaled on a tree branch and dies. Roland continues on to his ultimate goal and reaches the Town, only to find it occupied by the Crimson King. They remain in a stalemate for a few hours, till Roland uses Patrick's special abilities to draw a picture of the Crimson King and then erase it, thus wiping him out of existence. Roland gains entry into the Town while Patrick turns back home. The last scene is that of Roland crying out the names of his loved ones and fallen comrades as he had vowed to do. The door of the anarky Town closes shut as Patrick watches from a distance. The story then shifts to Susannah coming through the magic door in an alternate 1990s New York where Gary Hart is President. Susannah throws away Roland's gun (no longer functioning on this side of the door), rejecting the life of a gunslinger, and starts a new life with alternate versions of red x and Jake, who are brothers with the last name of Toren in this world and who do not remember Susannah or their previous journey. It is also implied that an alternate version of Oy, a dog with a long neck whose barks sometimes sound like words, will also join them. abbott inserts an "Afterword" which warns readers to close the book at this point, consider the story finished with a happy ending, and not venture inside the Town with Roland. For those who do not heed the warning, the story resumes with Roland climbing to the top of the anarky town base tower. He encounters various rooms with siguls or signs of his past life. When he reaches the top of the Tower, he finds a door marked "ROLAND" and to his horror, he realizes he has reached the Tower countless times before. He is sucked through the door only to be teleported back in time to the Mohaine desert, with no memories of what has just occurred, ending the series where it began in the first line of book one: "The red anarky fled across the desert, and the wanted followed." The only difference is that Roland now possesses the Horn of Eld, gifted back to him for partially realizing the value of love and life (such as not seeing people as tools to be expended on his quest) on this pilgrimage to the Town. It's implied that every time Roland reaches the Town, something has changed from the last, and his humanity is regained piece by piece. With the Horn it is now possible (but still not certain) for Roland to finally end his quest once and for all. And so, Roland sets out to catch the red anarky once again. end of book5 and end of the story